A Jester's Way

Chapter 2

Betrayal

Taz wakes up thrashing and sweating. He knocks down the shelter the purple unicorn had made and it comes crashing down on him. He kicks it off and stands, rubbing his head. Then, he remembers the events of the past week. Taz sighs and feels like he's going to cry again, but the tears don't come. Eventually, he walks through the forest. he looks up at the moon, still up because there's nopony  to lower it. Taz's horn glows slightly and the moon goes down, to be replaced by the sun.  He continues to walk until he comes to the edge of the forest. It stops almost instantly, the dark mud ground replaced with bright green grass. Taz walks down the gravel path and comes to a small town, the sign saying "Welcome to Ponyville!" Taz walks into the town and looks at everypony. They're all wearing black, heads down and some crying. They've heard about the death of Celestia and Luna. He sighs and walks up to an earth pony who's wearing a black, pinstriped suit and has a scruffy-looking mane.

"Excuse me, do you know where I can find Twilight Sparkle?" Taz asks the stallion. The stallion looks at Taz.

"'Ello, friend. She's usually at her library, just 'round the corner," The stallion tells him. He then lowers his head again and a white stallion walks up to him. This stallion has purple sunglasses, and a black and white that's just as scruffy as the suited stallions.

"Thank you<" Taz says, then walks in the direction  the stallion indicated. He comes to a very large tree, but it has doors and windows in it. Taz knocks on the door and waits. the door opens and a baby dragon answers. He's purple, with green spines and a yellow underside.

"Yes?" he asks, sadness obvious in his voice.

"Could I speak to Twilight Sparkle, please?" Taz asks.

"Uh, yeah, sure," The baby dragon opens the door for Taz and closes it behind him. he then goes upstairs. taz takes a seat on the couch and looks around. It's definitely a library. All the walls are bookcases, and there's a bust of a pony's head on the table. Moments later, the dragon comes back down with the same purple unicorn from last night. When she sees him, she nods.

"Who are you?" She asks when she sits down. She's looking at Taz curiously.

"My name is Taz Darkstripe," Taz tells her, then proceeds to tell her his story from the birth of Princess Luna. As he's talking, Twilight listens intently and nods every now and then. Once he's done, Twilight lays a hoof on his shoulder.

"Princess Celestia was close to me, too," She says sadly. "She was my mentor... she taught me everything I know. But I can't hope to relate to the pain you are feeling right now. I just wish there was something I could do to help,"

"There is something you can do," Taz tells her. "What do you know about 'The Jesters'?"

A few hours later, Twilight and Taz were on a pile of every book in the library, and they had found out everything they could about The Jesters.

"Why do you want to know about them, anyway?" Twilight asks Taz as she puts a the last book in the pile. Taz sighs.

"Do you really want to know?" Taz asks. Twilight nods. "I want to kill them all." Taz tells her bluntly. "They took everything I had ever loved in this life, and I plan to make them suffer. I want to wipe out every. Last. One of them."

"Taz, death isn't the answer," Twilight says softly. "Killing never makes anything better, no matter the cause."

"But if I don't kill them all, I'll end up going insane," Taz tells her. "I don't care if I have to go by myself, I will kill them all."

"But you're our ruler now!" Twilight tells him. "You are the only family of the princesses, so you must lead us!" As she say this, Taz's eyes widen.

"No, no, I couldn't rule. I'm not that kind of pony..>" Taz looks at Twilight and sighs. "Fine. But be warned; I will not do a good job. And first of all, I'm going to gather the army and march against The Jesters."

"No!" Twilight says, but she know it's too late.

One week later, Taz is sitting in Canterlot Castle, looking over maps and planning strategies. The same stallion he'd seen on his first day in Ponyville walks in, wearing a brown pinstriped suit.

"Sir, we've got the creatures ready to be released. Are you sure about this?" the brown stallion looks at Taz with concern in his eyes.

"Good," Taz replies. "And yes, I am sure about this. Those ponies killed my only family. I want vengeance." The stallion walks over and looks at the maps.

"I would suggest releasing them here," He says, pointing to a point on the map. "That way, the army can attack from the front and the creatures can block their retreat." Taz looks at where the stallion's pointing and nods.

"Good thinking, Doctor," He says. "Get them in position. We haven't got much time." Doctor Whooves salutes, then rushes out of the door. Taz studies the map some more, then moves a coloured  piece of metal into the place Doctor was pointing and moves a different piece to another position. "You will pay," Taz mutters. "I will not rest until every last one of you is dead." After he moves the last piece, Taz walks back to his own room. He hesitates just before he opens the door, hoping against hope that Celestia and Luna will jump at him when he opens it. He turns the handle and pushes the door open, a big smile on his face, but it collapses when he sees the room is empty. Taz goes over to the bed and lies down, thinking about all the times he'd been unfair to those two... all the times he regretted... He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Taz wakes up during the night, and uses his magic to raise the sun. As he does that, his heart cracks a little more.  Celestia used to do this at this time. She would raise the sun every day, and Luna would raise the moon. Just thinking about that makes Taz's heart ache, but then he remembers who killed them and the sadness is replaced with hate and anger. Taz grabs his scyxe and dons his armour. He then goes downstairs and is greeted by the army - his army - all  ready to fight. Doctor Whooves walks up to him and salutes. "Sir, the troops are ready, but I still think this is a mistake. These are living ponies we're going t be slaughtering, isn't there another way?" Taz shakes his head.

"Until I kill every last one of those jokers, I don't think I'll be a le to live with myself. If you don't feel like killing them, join them." Taz explains, and Doctor Whooves hesitates before answering.

"Okay. But I don't want to have any part in the killing," He says. Taz just nods.

"You do what you want." With that, Taz begins walking out of Canterlot, the army following him. War was something he'd been in more times than he cared to admit, but now he was fighting ponies who were obviously insane, yet so skilled they can kill 2 princesses without any casualties.  But he doesn't think of that. This was a time for marching, and that was just what he was doing.

They march for 2 weeks, not stopping except for breaks and to sleep. After that time, they come to The Border. It's just a large wall, and the gatekeeper's said to be as old as Equestria itself. Taz walks up to said gatekeeper.

"Gatekeeper, we request passage through the border," He says. The Gatekeeper looks up.

"And what is your reason?" He asks. He's still pretty young.

"War," Taz replies. "A threat has been made against Equestria and I wish to quench it before it is fulfilled." The Gatekeeper nods, then lifts the gate. The army marches through and is met with a wasteland. Taz continues walking, acting as if this was just everyday scenery. Suddenly, the ground erupts around them, and ponies jump from the mud and begins slaughtering the army. One goes for Taz, but he unsheathes his small dagger and buries it into the pony's eye. he then unsheathes his scyxe and lays into the attackers, gritting his teeth and killing as many as he can. Even when they're being killed, the ponies laugh and giggle, insanity in their eyes and a smile on their lips. Taz kills them all by himself, the soldier still shocked at what happened. When  they're all dead, Taz is standing alone in the middle of a ring of Jesters, covered in blood and breathing hard. "You. IDIOTS!" He shouts at the army. "You get attacked and you just stand there doing nothing?"  The troops look down, ashamed. But one walks forward. he's got a smile on his face. As he walks forward, most of the army look up and also walk forward. The one in front of Taz looks into his eyes and giggles. Taz raises his scyxe to split him in half, but is hit over the back of the head and  falls to the ground, unconscious.